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Role of Socio-spiritual Reformers in the Social Well-Being of Contemporary India
Abstract
Spiritual leaders and social reformers have contributed greatly toward creating positive experiences, positive individual traits, and in building positive institutions that have supported healthy and thriving life for the self and others. Social well-being, which encompasses the extent to which individuals view society as meaningful and just, experience of a sense of social belonging, and positive attitudes toward others facilitates healthy functioning of society. However, India’s history is marked by grips of the social inequalities arising from religious dogmas, caste system, grossly unequal distribution of land rights, inferior status of women, and inequalities in access to education that hindered flourishing of the society. The social stratification, as well as the contempt, deprivation, discrimination, prejudice, rejection affected the self-esteem, quality of life, intellectual growth, and overall well-being of the oppressed and hindered the peace and harmony of the society. With the rise of the socio-spiritual awakening, Indian society saw a beginning of a powerful social change movement that worked toward empowering each member of the society, especially the underprivileged. This chapter discusses the implicit connections between some of the most prominent spiritual as well as social reforms, positive psychological practices, and their role in enhancing social well-being. The chapter ends by highlighting the unexplored connecting links between the socio-spiritual awakenings, social upliftment, and social well-being.KeywordsSocial reformsSpiritual movementsMental healthSocial well-beingSociocultural factor
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With the development of world towards industrialization, globalization, higher economic growth, population growth and living standards, the consumption of natural resources has been raised a lot. However, there is a limited capacity of our planet to meet the increasing demands for natural resources and to absorb emissions and wastes resulting from us. Ecovillage is a solution for healing the planet as it demonstrates a viable, sustainable human and planetary future. In this research paper Ecovillage design patterns will be analyzed and evaluated for environmental conservation. Case study of Dayalbagh is also presented to evaluate its performance as an Ecovillage.
One of the most famous Bengali and Indian philosophers of all time, Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a leader of the Renaissance. When superstition, poverty, harassment-neglect-oppression of women, the collapse of Indian education, and other social ills dominated Bengali and India's entire societies in the eighteenth century, Ram Mohan Roy emerged. The social position, rights, and education of women have all deteriorated as a result of the lengthy period of Muslim dominance in India. There were many problems under the East India Company's rule, despite the fact that the colonial rulers established some schooling to support their rule and trade. The caste system was surrounded by an air of untouchability, and the social structure was split into several castes, races, and faiths. The caste system, both high and low, affected women's lives and educational opportunities. This essay aims to demonstrate that Ram Mohan Roy was influential at the time and helped to break down discrimination in the traditional culture and create a modern one. On the other side, he was able to effect a groundbreaking transformation in India's educational system as well as the preservation of women's lives and rights. The study's objective is to describe and evaluate Raja Ram Mohan Roy's contributions to Indian society. The study used an analytical and documentary approach to come at a conclusion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a significant effect on individuals worldwide, and it is clear that minority communities including the Sikh community have been particularly affected by the virus. The current study assessed the impact of the pandemic in a sample of 44 British Sikhs across 11 virtual focus groups. Three main themes emerged including making meaningful connections, struggling to adjust and the organisation of gurdware (Sikh places of worship) in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight that faith may promote collective action for collective healing especially during mass trauma, with specific insight into what this may entail for the Sikh community.
Famous as a pioneer of the liberal social system, Saint Kabir Das was one of the major indices of the medieval Bhakti movement. Although permanent evidence is not available, according to most beliefs, the poet Kabir Das was born in Kashi (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) in the mid-15th century. The details of Kabir's life is still unknown till date. As far as recorded, there are stories of Kabir's birth mystery has a similar trail found in Biblical texts. Among his most famous writings are his Doha or couplets and poems that sometimes refer the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib. Kabir was deeply focused on his spiritual knowledge. In Davistan in Mosinfani and Aineakbari in Abu'l-Fazur, he is called "Muwahid" or "Believer of God." He criticized both Hinduism and Islam, the former as per him being misinterpretation of the Vedas. He frequently questioned meaningless rituals such as sacred threads and circumcision. Kabir is a brave pioneer, a great pioneer in the unification of the Hindu and Muslim communities of India, an apostle of human faith, and taught that God has been revealed to all of humanity. Although his life is a mystery and lesser known, his contribution as a social and religious reformer has become a promoter of social progress and laid a solid foundation for modern society. However, the implementation of Kabir's philosophy is still incomplete and uninterpreted. With the inspiration of this gap, the current review of Kabir Das's ideals and contributions to human unity takes into account the legendary saint's theory and view of human unity as an important element of a stable and constructive society.
The article tries to examine and study the role of some of the Hindu social reform movements that came up during the British rule to transform, modernize, and uplift society by imparting modern or western education. The article studies their role in eradicating social evils like child re-marriage, dowry and sati among the Hindu community in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition to these elements, it also tries to enlighten the role of various Hindu reform movements in imparting education among all sections of society without any discrimination.
My first introduction with Kabir Das ji’s Couplets was when I was in high school that time Just studied as a part of syllabus honestly never understood the depth in them. But During the second wave of pandemic were environment was full of negativity myselfCovid -19 positive and home isolated broken mentally and physically fortunately got to read “Kabir K Doha” believe me they are priceless gem for our generation I got to learn so much these couplets are the ocean of knowledge, gives a very positive view and a deep understanding on each and every aspect of social life; there is profound wisdom hidden in each couplet. They reflect Kabir’s Love, Philosophy, Mysticism his deep faith in Supreme power and believes in mental and spiritual awakening. . His couplets are timeless deals with every aspect of human psychology so relevant in present days. Kabir Das ji’s way of expressing the most profound thoughts with ease and in the simplest words is so practical and true that anyone can understand easily. His Several couplets are deeply connected to some universally relevant behaviour that one would find in most competency dictionaries they teach how to deal with day-to-day problems “the art of living and life skills”
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic led to mental health fallout in the US; yet research about mental health and COVID-19 primarily rely on samples that may overlook variance in regional mental health. Indeed, between-city comparisons of mental health decline in the US may provide further insight into how the pandemic is disproportionately affecting at-risk groups.
Purpose
This study leverages social media and COVID-19-city infection data to measure the longitudinal (January 22- July 31, 2020) mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 20 metropolitan areas.
Methods
We used longitudinal VADER sentiment analysis of Twitter timelines (January-July 2020) for cohorts in 20 metropolitan areas to examine mood changes over time. We then conducted simple and multivariate Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions to examine the relationship between COVID-19 infection city data, population, population density, and city demographics on sentiment across those 20 cities.
Results
Longitudinal sentiment tracking showed mood declines over time. The univariate OLS regression highlighted a negative linear relationship between COVID-19 city data and online sentiment (β = -.017). Residing in predominantly white cities had a protective effect against COVID-19 driven negative mood (β = .0629, p < .001).
Discussion
Our results reveal that metropolitan areas with larger communities of color experienced a greater subjective well-being decline than predominantly white cities, which we attribute to clinical and socioeconomic correlates that place communities of color at greater risk of COVID-19.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic is a driver of declining US mood in 20 metropolitan cities. Other factors, including social unrest and local demographics, may compound and exacerbate mental health outlook in racially diverse cities.
Adolescence is a critical age for developing difficulties with emotion regulation and other psychosocial problems. Yoga programs implemented in schools may be a promising method of intervention, as previous research suggests that they improve emotion regulation and other psychological outcomes in adolescents. This study examined the effects of the Kundalini Yoga-based Y.O.G.A for Youth (Y4Y) after-school program on adolescents’ self-reported emotion dysregulation and psychological functioning. A sample of 119 students, ages 11–14, was recruited through after-school programs for middle school students in the North Carolina school system. Within four public schools, participants participated in 6 weeks of either the Y4Y after-school program (n = 52), or an alternate activity (n = 66) and completed self-report measures of emotion dysregulation, anxiety, depression, stress and mindfulness before and after the 6 weeks. Results from this study suggest that the students who participated in the Y4Y program reported significant decreases in emotion dysregulation over the 6-week program. They also reported significant decreases in anger, depression and fatigue over one yoga session. Students in the comparison condition only reported significant decreases in fatigue over one session of the program but reported no significant changes in any of the other outcomes. Results from exploratory between-subject analyses also suggested that the Y4Y program’s impact on depression, stress and anxiety depended on the school setting in which they were implemented. These findings suggest that the Y4Y program improved emotion dysregulation in adolescent students. However, some of its benefits may be influenced by the school environment.
Acknowledging the need for more gender work in Public Administration, this paper engages feminist standpoint theory to analytically frame the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic from a feminist perspective. By assessing the differential impact of the pandemic on women and men in the United States across several sectors of the political economy and society, it is apparent women face immense obstacles in the labor market, as well as in access to health, food and housing. This analytical approach is in line with the United Nation's fifth Sustainable Development Goal, gender equity. The imperative to include women's perspectives in pandemic response and planning is juxtaposed against the current pandemic response that primarily leaves women out of the decision-making process. The policy tool of gender responsive budgeting, successfully implemented in various countries, is proposed to offset the gender inequities triggered by the pandemic in the U.S.
Brahma Kumaris Rajayoga’s open eyed ‘seed stage meditation’ was studied in 52 experienced meditators. The meditation consists of different stages: concentration on the feeling of peace, realization of being a soul and communion of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul. Brain electric source localization in the frequency domain was used on multichannel EEG recordings to establish activation differences between meditation and open eyed, task-free resting. Meditation showed reduced activity in delta and increased activity in low alpha frequencies. The affected brain areas comprised the following networks during meditation: the central executive network, the mirroring network and both the task-positive and the task-negative network. The altered activations of these networks and other affected brain areas reflect the main cognitive-affective and behavioral specifics of seed stage meditation: attention modulation, self-related processing, experiencing the soul as a point of light between the eyes, endowing the soul with the properties (peacefulness) of the Supreme Soul. Future studies need to differentiate between the stages of the meditation.
Many African American families in the United States deal with chronic adversity marked by systematic oppression. Families are often encouraged to demonstrate perseverance, regardless of the conditions in which they live—essentially, to model resilience. However, temporal positive adaptations displayed by African American families could be fostering greater, more damaging future vulnerabilities. The concept of rethinking resilience implores family scientists and practitioners to think critically about how processes of resilience may be imposing risk on families when they are expected continuously to adapt internally but, externally, their adverse environments remain unchanged. Family scientists and practitioners bear the responsibility of not only encouraging positive adaptations in families but also intentionally working to ameliorate conditions that necessitate resilience through acts of social justice. This article describes the potential harm that resides in shallow promotions of resilience and provides aspiring social justice allies with practical concepts to consider as they rethink resilience.
This special issue of Religions brings together a talented group of international scholars who have studied and written on the Hindu tradition. The topic of religious experience is much debated in the field of Religious Studies, and here we present studies of Hindu religious experience explored from a variety of regions and perspectives. They are intended to show that religious experience has long been an important part of Hinduism, and we consider them to be important and relevant. As a body of scholarship, these articles refine our understanding of the range and variety of religious experience in Hinduism. In addition to their substantive contributions, the authors also show important new directions in the study of the third-largest religion in the world, with over one billion followers. This introduction will discuss some relevant issues in the field of Indology, some problems of language, and the difficulties faced in the study of religious experience. It will also give a brief sketch of the religious experiences described by our authors in some major types of Hinduism.
In the present era of globalization, Indian management education is realigning itself with global trends, striving for academic excellence to achieve a spiritual vision of life. The gruelling atmosphere of the academics coupled with fading relationships among faculties and students specifies that educators crave for both significance and sense of community at the workplace. There is an urgent need to rethink management education system in India that comprises teaching professionals who instil interconnectedness, empathy and compassion among students and cultivate meaningful relationships with peers at the academic workplace. In the present chapter, I have borrowed lessons from the work of Swami Vivekananda, who believed that education is the way by which lack of knowledge is replaced by intelligence and spiritual wisdom.
Empirical evidence indicates that practices linked to reducing the environmental impact of travelling, heating, cooling and food consumption are compatible with high levels of wellbeing. More and more people are shopping on-line, which increases the efficiency of consumption, expands choice and information – while also intensifying exposure to consumerism and materialistic messages. This article explores the relationship between sustainable consumption and wellbeing and the role of on-line shopping in moderating the relationship, analysing survey data from a representative sample of the Norwegian population in 2017. Wellbeing is addressed in its hedonic (happiness), cognitive (satisfaction)and eudaimonic dimensions (subjective vitality). Sustainable consumption practices are investigated through a variable that captures the extent to which respondents choose sustainable alternatives as regards travel, household energy use and food. Results based on regression analysis of cross-sectional data indicate that sustainable consumption is positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction in Norway, but that the relationship weakens when psychological and lifestyle factors are taken into account. Subjective vitality maintains its strong association with sustainable consumption. Two alternative explanations are proposed: that those who feel energetic engage more in sustainable practices; and that the effort and socialization inherent in sharing, reusing and reducing promote the conditions for increased psychological health and vitality. The study also shows that internet shopping does not weaken the strength of the relationship, and might even increase life satisfaction by lowering the costs of engaging in sustainable consumption practices.
This paper focuses on the branch of Santmat (thus far, unstudied by scholars of Indian religions), prevalent in the rural areas of Bihar, India. Santmat—literally meaning “the Path of Sants” or “Point of View of the Sants”—of Bihar represents a unique synthesis of the elements of the Vedic traditions, rural Hindu practices, and esoteric experiences, as recorded in the poetry of the medieval Sant Tradition. I characterize this tradition as “Santmat of Bihar” to differentiate it from the other branches of Santmat. The tradition has spread to all parts of India, but its highest concentration remains in Bihar. Maharishi Mehi, a twentieth-century Sant from Bihar State, identifies Santmat’s goal as śānti. Maharishi Mehi defines Śānti as the state of deep stillness, equilibrium, and the unity with the Divine. He considers those individuals sants who are established in this state. The state of sublime peace is equally available to all human beings, irrespective of gender, religion, ethnicity, or status. However, it requires a systematic path. Drawing on the writings of the texts of Sanātana Dharma, teachings of the Sants and personal experiences, Maharishi Mehi lays out a systematic path that encompasses the moral observances and detailed esoteric experiences. He also provides an in-depth description of the esoteric practices of divine light (dṛṣti yoga) and sound (surat śabda yoga) in the inner meditation. After providing a brief overview of the history and distinctive features of Santmat of Bihar, this paper will focus on the specifics and unique interpretations of the four structural principles of the tradition: Guru (spiritual teacher), dhyān (inner path of mediation), satsaṅg (spiritual discourses or congregating practitioners for meditation or study), and sadācār (moral conduct). Through a close analysis of textual sources, Sants’ oral discourses that I translated, as well as insights from my participant-observant experiences, I will examine how the four elements reorient the practitioner from the mundane world to the sacred inner experience of śānti.
The status of a woman in a society shows the social, cultural, religious and political scenario of that society. The position of the woman has passed many phases. It becomes evident after studying the fundamental teachings of different spiritual traditions that different religions accorded high status to the woman. Through this research paper, an effort has been made to know the status of the woman in Sikhism. For this purpose, Semitic and Aryan religious traditions have been made the foundation to understand the status of the woman prior to the emergence of Sikhism. Misogynistic interpretation of the myth of Adam and Eve in Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions and Pursha-Prakriti duality in Hindu Sankh philosophy made it clear that it is male chauvinism and misogynistic bent of mind which undermined the role of the woman in those societies. In the fifteenth century, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and his successor Sikh Gurus accorded very high status to the woman. Guru Ram Das, fourth Nanak, composed Lavan- the recitation of which became an essential part of the Sikh marriage ceremony. Lawans helped the women to get worthy status with men not only in this world but in spiritual realm also. Women in Sikhism through the institution of marriage regained their lost status. In this research paper, it has been concluded that Eve and Prakriti i.e. women are enabled to play equal and more vibrant role in the socio-religious, political and economic spheres due to the egalitarian and humanistic message of the Sikh Gurus. Sikhism has made it possible to wipe out the gender bias and narrow-mindedness associated with a male dominated society.
This experiment investigates the effects of a seven-day kindness activities intervention on changes in subjective happiness. The study was designed to test whether performing different types of kindness activities had differential effects on happiness. Our recent systematic review and meta-analysis of the psychological effects of kindness (Curry, et al. 2018) revealed that performing acts of kindness boosts happiness and well-being. However, we noted in that review that rarely had researchers specifically compared the effects of kindness to different recipients, such as to friends or to strangers. Thus in a single factorial design (n=683) we compare acts of kindness to strong social ties, weak social ties, novel acts of self kindness, and observing acts of kindness, against a no acts control group. The results indicate that performing kindness activities for seven days increases happiness. In addition, we report a positive correlation between the number of kind acts and increases in happiness. Neither effect differed across the experimental the groups, suggesting that kindness to strong ties, to weak ties, and to self, as well as observing acts of kindness, have equally positive effects on happiness.
Research on meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, with an increasing understanding of the centrality of meaningfulness for work-related motivation, commitment, and well-being. However, ambiguity around the main construct, “meaningful work,” has hindered this progress as various researchers have used partly overlapping, partly differing conceptualizations. To bring clarity to this issue, we examine a broad range of various definitions of meaningful work and come to argue that meaningfulness in the broadest sense is about work significance as an overall evaluation of work as regards whether it is intrinsically valuable and worth doing. Furthermore, we argue that there are two key sub-dimensions to this work significance: Broader purpose as work serving some greater good or prosocial goals (the intrinsic value of work beyond the person in question). And self-realization as a sense of autonomy, authenticity and self-expression at work (the intrinsic value of work for the person in question). Previous definitions of meaningful work feature typically one or two of these elements—significance, broader purpose, self-realization –, but in the future it would be beneficial to clearly acknowledge all three elements in both definitions and operationalizations of meaningful work.
The Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya (Brahma Kumaris) is categorized three ways by scholars: as a millenarian New Religious Movement, as a new religion, and as a Hindu sect. By contrast, the Brahma Kumaris members (BKs) identify their community as a family (with spiritual kin), a school (for spiritual learning), and a hospital (to heal spiritual illness). They do not see themselves as belonging to a religion, but to a teaching institution (primarily in Asia and the Russian Federation) or a spiritual path (primarily in Europe, North America, and Australia) that has been established to restore human souls to their original purity, thereby restoring the world to its Golden Age origins. The community was formally established in 1936, as a trust comprising young women, but its formation can be traced back to 1932.
NB. This document includes the first page of the article, in order to abide by Oxford University Press copyright.
This article analyzes how the modern movement of Santmat, literally “the views of sants,” primarily popular in the rural areas of northern India, uniquely situates itself within the context of “Vedic Dharma.” Through the monastic leadership’s redefinition of the categories of Vedic Dharma and Sanātana Dharma, the Santmat tradition creates a space where vernacular Hindu practices and mystical Vedic paths can co-exist. Thus, it stands apart from other contemporary Sant Mat traditions that reject Vedic Dharma. In this article, I pair an examination and analysis of the Santmat movement’s historical development and methods, in which Vedic wisdom coheres with the sants’ spiritual insights, with an ethnographic analysis of how this movement enacts a creative integration of vernacular traditions. I suggest that this particular Santmat’s “bricolage,” to borrow a term from Claude Levi-Strauss, illustrates a distinctive example of experimental dharmas in the context of vernacular sant traditions in contemporary North India. Santmat’s skillful integration of local religious vernaculars gives expression to its engagement with lived devotional traditions. Such mixing of practices, which illustrate the processes of hybridity and syncretism, has helped to make the esoteric practices more meaningful and relevant to the everyday lives of the masses, including the tribal and rural people of Bihar and Nepal, populations often marginalized in orthodox Hindu practices. I examine the experimentation occurring within the Santmat tradition and argue that Bihar’s Santmat movement may be termed “Vernacular Vedic Dharma.” Furthermore, I address how within the 21st-century rise of extremism, Santmat shows that Vedic Dharma, within its manifold strands of practices and philosophies, encourages an adherence to the harmonizing esoteric spiritual path as well as a universal ethical framework.
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies innovatively combines the ways in which scholars from fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics have integrated the study of Sikhism within a wide range of critical and post-colonial perspectives on the nature of religion, violence, gender, ethno-nationalism, and revisionist historiography. A number of essays within this collection also provide a more practical dimension, written by artists and practitioners of the tradition. The handbook is divided into eight thematic partsections that explore different ‘expressions’ of Sikhism. Historical, literary, ideological, institutional, and artistic expressions are considered in turn, followed by discussion of Sikhs in the Diaspora, and of caste and gender in the Sikh community (Panth). Each partsection begins with an essay by a prominent scholar in the field, providing an overview of the topic. Further essays provide detail and further treat the fluid, multivocal nature of both the Sikh past and the present. The handbook concludes with a partsection considering future directions in Sikh Studies.
In contrast to sectarian movements across the world that have been fundamentalist in terms of their ideology and locked in conflicts with those who worshipped 'differently', dissent movements within devotional streams were characterized by the qualities of universalism, humanism and love which cut across communal, caste and gender lines. The primary focus of this volume is to present the morphology of dissent within devotion. In the process, the traditional tropes of borders and boundaries get corroded. The normally visible communal, class, caste and gender divides are rendered fuzzy. Equally significant is the emergence of dissent within dissent movements, as these movements begin to petrify into rigid doctrinal positions.
This book seeks to provide a counter-perspective to the well-known and well-trodden school of Marxist historiography which locates religion firmly within the existing socio-economic order. However, the editor has not conceived of a tailored closure to these two positions and this volume contains essays that explore the notion of devotion as being embedded in dissent, either religious or social.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the pioneer of the Renaissance, is one of the most memorable Bengali and Indian thinkers of all time. When in the eighteenth century, India and Bengal's whole society was around by Superstition, Poverty, Harassment-neglect-oppression of women, the breakdown of Indian education then Ram Mohan Roy appeared. As India had been ruled by Muslim rules for a long time, the social status and rights of women along with education have come to a standstill. We do not see any exceptions during the rule of the East India Company, although the colonial rulers organized some education to facilitate their rule and trade, there were many dilemmas. The social system was divided into different religions, castes, and races, and the caste system was shrouded in untouchability. The high and low caste system had an impact on women's lives and education as well. This paper seeks to show that Ram Mohan Roy stood at the time and played a positive role in breaking the barrier of prejudice of the conservative society and building a modern society. On the other hand, he was able to bring about a groundbreaking change in the protection of women's lives and rights and the field of education in India. This paper is conducted to show the relevance of Ram Mohan Roy's contributions to society, women's rights, and education in the 21st century.
This chapter analyses the positionality of Halis—former bonded labourers, ploughers and animal carcass removers—who constitute the most subordinated Scheduled Caste (SC) community within the Gaddi tribal orbit. For many Halis, the struggle for Scheduled Tribe (ST) recognition begins with legally undoing their ancestral conversion to the Ayra Samaj. In the early twentieth century, many Halis officially replaced their caste name with ‘Arya’ or ‘Gaddi Arya’ in the Revenue Record in order to combat tribal casteism. For a time, they adopted the purifying techniques and caste-obliterating ideologies of the Arya Samaj. This strategy of upward caste mobility backfired, however, when Arya was classified as a forward caste and converted Halis were denied SC benefits in the initial constitutional scheduling. Their official status as Aryas continues to deprive thousands of Halis of much-needed SC benefits and protections. Through fieldwork data collected between 2014 and 16, I highlight the psychosocial anguish of many Halis as they waste inordinate amounts of time and resources bribing bureaucrats, negotiating with state administrators, excavating the archive for non-existent property documents, and being exploited by lawyers—all in the pursuit of restoring their Hali caste name to qualify for SC benefits. Many Halis—non-literate village scratch farmers—are defeated by feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. Their struggle is further complicated by a desire to ascend the escalator of state recognition from forward caste Aryas to SC Halis to ST Gaddi Dalits. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that state (mis)recognition can drive marginalization and coarsen psychosocial wellbeing.
The idea that India is a Hindu majority nation rests on the assumption that the vast swath of its population stigmatized as 'untouchable' is, and always has been, in some meaningful sense, Hindu. But is that how such communities understood themselves in the past, or how they understand themselves now? When and under what conditions did this assumption take shape, and what truths does it conceal? In this book, Joel Lee challenges presuppositions at the foundation of the study of caste and religion in South Asia. Drawing on detailed archival and ethnographic research, Lee tracks the career of a Dalit religion and the effort by twentieth-century nationalists to encompass it within a newly imagined Hindu body politic. A chronicle of religious life in north India and an examination of the ethics and semiotics of secrecy, Deceptive Majority throws light on the manoeuvres by which majoritarian projects are both advanced and undermined.
Despite growing interest in the relation between social justice and life satisfaction, there is a paucity of quantitative investigations linking these two constructs, even in the field of Community Psychology. To bridge this gap, we tested the relationship between the EU Social Justice Index (SJI; 2008–2017) and life satisfaction across 28 European Union (EU) countries, in a series of multilevel multinomial logistic regression models with cumulative logit link function. The SJI proved one of the strongest predictors of national life satisfaction, after controlling for time variation and other well‐established country‐level determinants. Our findings lend support to the hypothesis that social justice is highly related to life satisfaction. We invite scholars to explore this relationship further. We also recommend that EU governments strive to promote fairer social conditions to increase national happiness.
This is an intellectual and cultural history of India during the period of British occupation. It demonstrates that this was a period of renaissance in India in which philosophy-both in the public sphere and in the Indian universities-played a central role in the emergence of a distinctively Indian modernity. This is also a history of Indian philosophy. It demonstrates how the development of a secular philosophical voice facilitated the construction of modern Indian society and the consolidation of the nationalist movement. We explore the complex role of the English language in philosophical and nationalist discourse, demonstrating both the anxieties that surrounded English, and the processes that normalized it as an Indian vernacular and academic language. We attend both to Hindu and Muslim philosophers, to public and academic intellectuals, to artists and art critics, and to national identity and nation-builidng. We also explore the complex interactions between Indian and European thought during this period, including the role of missionary teachers and study at foreign universities in the evolution of Indian philosophy. We show that this pattern of interaction, although often disparaged as “inauthentic” is continuous with the cosmopolitanism that has always characterized the intellectual life of India, and that the philosophy articulated during this period is a worthy continuation of the Indian philosophical tradition.
This article provides an overview of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga Psychology (IYP), with a focus on relevance to clinical practice. After summarizing recent developments in integrative medicine that have brought transpersonal themes into the mainstream of contemporary healthcare, the transformational paradigm of IYP is used to articulate a spiritually-informed approach to psychology and psychiatry. Topics covered include the soul (psychic being), reincarnation, the chakra system, psychodynamic therapy, ego defenses, positive psychology, CBT, AA, parapsychology, and mind-body medicine. The possession model of illness is addressed in detail, using both case material and the author’s own experience, and is compared to Jung’s method of working with the shadow. Finally, a range of real-world issues are discussed, including cross-cultural considerations, the structure of healthcare systems, the stigma of mental illness, and psychopharmacology. © 2018 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. All Rights Reserved.
This article reports on a multi-city experiment of a customized Raja yoga meditation program in enhancing the meaning in life and happiness of older adults. Participant cohort was comprised of 698 older adult followers across 10 European and African cities with an equal number in the comparison group. Results indicated that meditation positively impacted the life satisfaction and happiness of participants. Post-test outcome measure scores were higher for participants from European cities, women, middle class, retired, never married, and widowed, with good self-rated health, who regularly attended the meditation sessions and self-practiced. Participants’ personal engagement through regular self-practice was the most significant predictor of higher post-test meaning in life and subjective happiness. Results imply that this specially designed Raja yoga meditation is a strong pastoral care practice that could be used with older adults with some variations based on cultural, biographical, and health profiles of participants and regular self-practice as a prerequisite.
Positive psychology, referred to by some as a “fifth force” in psychology, has claimed that its offerings can contribute to the building of a “good life” and a “moral society.” Its methods in achieving this goal appear to include not only active denial of systemic and institutionalized forms of oppression or rationalizing oppression as a positive force, but also judgment of feelings, experiences, and actions that are central to addressing prejudice and social violence. Suffering is presented as a failure of self-control. Moreover, positive psychology, like other dominant forms of Western psychology throughout its history, legitimize themselves through scientism, which embraces supposedly “value-neutral” empiricism including exclusively natural science/quantitative designs, evolutionary psychology, a biological focus, and experimentation on animals. Special attention is given to how positive psychology is communicated to the public through popular publications, and how a mono-emotional approach to human experience is produced by and supports monocultural social structures.
It has been reported in various studies that music in general and satsang (singing folk sings in a group) in particular has a positive effect on well-being. The present paper focuses on an analysis of what the rural women sing in these songs that form the repertoire of a satsang. The study area is Haryana, a state in India. Sample songs have been analysed to present the religious/spiritual messages that these folk songs convey. Content analysis of these songs has been done after categorising them broadly into three categories: songs that sing praises of Gods and Goddesses, sing about the incidences from scriptures and songs that convey spiritual or religious messages. Through this, the paper has explored the ways to disseminate spiritual/religious knowledge through folk songs in the local rural community.
The article argues that in Punjab several Deras are facilitating the elevation of the socio-economic conditions of Dalits through didactics and commandments. It further challenges the varying inimitable dominant agrarian structure of the village/rural society. The dominant strata/caste(s) of the society, however, resists this Dalit assertion by using socio-religious, economic and political forces to maintain the status quo. The present study explores such type of Dalit assertion through a Dera and resistance they encounter from the dominant agrarian caste, Jat Sikhs, of the village. The article employs the political economy approach to analyse the Deras of Punjab, by focusing on Dera Baba Bhure Shah Sappanwala as its critical reference point.
Millions of people in India are born with scars that will last a lifetime. These are scars of social rather than physical blemish and they reduce the capacity of such persons to function in life, free of prejudice and untainted by stigma. The source of these wounds is the practice of ‘untouchability’, meaning that any physical contact with them is avoided because they are considered ‘unclean’. This article studies the nature of households in India that admit to ‘practising untouchability’ — in the sense of avoiding contact with persons they regard as unclean — and contrasts such households with those that claim to be not ‘practising untouchability’. Such a contrast is possible because the data used, which are from the Indian Human Development Survey, associate with each household a wealth of economic, social and demographic data. Consequently, it is possible to estimate the likelihood of a household practising untouchability, conditional upon the values pertaining to it of a number of relevant factors. These include its social group, its main source of income, the highest educational level of its members, its urban or rural location and its region of residence. The central finding of the analysis is that the practice of untouchability is determined more by the region in which a household is located than by the caste to which it belongs.
This article seeks to discuss the development and growth of the socio-religious reform movement started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy during the 18th century with special reference to women rights and their empowerment. Sambad Kaumudi and Mirat-ul Akhbar, a Bengali and Persian weekly, respectively, started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy to launch his progressive movement in India. This paper also highlights the contribution of Raja Ram Mohan Roy in the field of journalism which he later used as a plausible medium to reach the masses and to propagate his modern ideas for the cultural regeneration of India and modernization of the country. He thought that without education social and economic progress of his countrymen was not possible. Therefore, he strongly advocated for modern education through which he prepared the ground of socio-religious reforms in the country. This paper also tries to analyze the difficulties faced by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in convincing the people for women education and banning the inhuman practice like sati. Roy was the moving spirit behind empowering women and getting for them a respectable position in the society. To broaden the base of his socioreligious reform movement, he founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1829.